Christa Pike Asks Loved Ones to Stay Away as Execution Nears

Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The 1995 murder drew intense media attention after Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest. Pike had accused Slemmer of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents at the camp later testified that Pike bragged about the murder before and after the crime, and at one point showed them a piece of Slemmer's skull.

A year later, Pike was sentenced to death. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Sellars said she struggles to reconcile the woman she has known as kind and protective with the person who carried out the killing. Pike does not want her loved ones to witness the execution. "She doesn't want us to experience that," Sellars said.

Pike's defence has argued she is a victim too, and her lawyers have filed a clemency petition asking for her sentence to be commuted. Colleen Slemmer's mother has said she wants the execution to go ahead so her daughter "finally can be resting."

Only 18 women have been executed in the United States since the 1970s, compared with 1,663 men. If the execution proceeds, Pike will be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Analysis

Why This Matters

The execution would be Tennessee's first of a woman in more than 200 years, underscoring how rarely the US death penalty is applied to women.
The case highlights the disparity between the sentences handed to Pike, who was 18, and her co-defendant, who was 17 and received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
The pending clemency petition tests whether the state will intervene in a case in which the defence argues Pike is herself a victim.

Background

The death penalty remains legal in Tennessee and is carried out by lethal injection. Since the 1970s, executions of women in the United States have been rare, and Tennessee has not executed a woman in more than two centuries. Pike was 18 when the murder took place in 1995, and her accomplice was a minor, making the sentencing disparity a recurring theme through years of failed appeals.

Key Perspectives

Pike's lawyers: They have filed a clemency petition seeking to commute her sentence, and have argued that Pike is a victim too.

Ashlee Sellars, Pike's friend: She describes Pike as kind and protective, and says Pike is trying to spare her loved ones the trauma of witnessing her death. "She doesn't want us to experience that," Sellars said.

Critics of clemency: They point to the brutality of the crime and the evidence that Pike bragged about the murder before and after it happened, including showing other camp residents a piece of the victim's skull. Colleen Slemmer's mother has said she wants the execution to proceed so her daughter "finally can be resting."

What to Watch

Whether the clemency petition is granted or denied ahead of Wednesday's scheduled execution.
Any last-minute legal filings from Pike's lawyers, who have exhausted years of appeals.
Whether Tennessee proceeds with the first execution of a woman in the state in more than 200 years, a step likely to draw renewed attention to the use of capital punishment.

Analysis

Why This Matters

Background

Key Perspectives

What to Watch

Sources